By BR Tabatha
Up until recently my motto was that the only good wine was any wine that happened to be in my wine glass. Using it for cooking? What a waste. Using a glass of red to make a fruit fly trap? Pass the fly spray. Tipping white wine onto spilled red wine to clean up the mess? Quelle horreur! But lately my attitude towards wine has changed. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy a glass or two but you see I’ve discovered wine, or more to the point the ingredients used to create certain types of alcohol, have another equally awesome use… as ingredients in beauty products!
It all started when I was perusing the Antipodes brochure and the words ‘sauvignon blanc’ popped out at me. I seriously thought I was seeing things, but no. It turns out the Vanilla Pod Hydrating Cream is one of a selection of Antipodes products that contain the Vinanza Grape® antioxidant, which comes from Marlborough sauvignon blanc grape seeds. When clinically tested it showed that elasticity and firmness in the skin was improved by 16%. Cheers to that!
The only time I’d ever heard the word ‘resveratrol’ was on the radio for some capsule of some sort, it never occurred to me that its claims of being a powerful antioxidant could be also used and infused into beauty products. But someone, somewhere has found a way and slowly but surely resveratrol (which can be found in the skin of red grapes, so gets the boozy beauty tick from me) is being included in beauty products from lipsticks to moisturisers to serums - like the Resveratrol BE Concentrate from Skinceuticals, which claims to support skin’s natural repair by neutralising free radicals while diminishing visible signs of accelerated aging.
So are there other alcohol ingredients (other than the usual ethanol, which can be drying to the skin) that have weaved their way into the world of beauty?
When beauty brand SK-II discovered the hands of workers creating sake were so smooth and beautiful compared to their wrinkled faces they went into research mode and isolated a strain of yeast, which they named Pitera, that they believed held the key to their hands’ youthful appearance. They then infused this strain of yeast into their range of award-winning products, which is now well loved by women all over the world. If SK-II is out of your price range you could also try bathing in sake. Just add a cup of two to your bath water, relax and let the liquid work its magic.
While a quiet beer is lovely on a scorching summer’s day, it turns out it’s not just good for a quick hit of refreshment. New Zealand skincare company, Oxygen, have harnessed the power of Nelson organic hops and made it the hero ingredient of their range. The hop extract is known as an antiseptic and cleanser and it also contains anti-inflammatory properties – which work together to soothe and improve the skin.
Who knew boozy beauty could be so good for your skin? Did you? What boozy beauty products do you swear by? Will you be giving boozy beauty a go?
Cheers to that indeed! I knew Oxygen brand used Hops and I had heard of Sake being used in skin care before, grape seed yes... but I didn't link the actual product to wine. I do love my Oxygen serum... so on the Boozy wagon I hop ;)